Last Sunday, Carlson hosted "Young American Foundation" spokeswoman Ashley Pratte for yet another whine about liberal bias on our campuses. (Right, this is on the "fair & balanced" Fox News). The latest example of conservative victimhood centers around how, according to Pratte, college reading lists don't OMG include conservative books and, even worse, include liberal books in which characters of color aren't suitably appreciative of white people. What wasn't notable was the discussion which was of the standard ain't those liberals awful variety. What was notable were Carlson's insulting comments, delivered with a smile, about celebrated author Toni Morrison.

Carlson began the "Trouble with Schools" segment with his claim, as Fox Fact, that "colleges and universities have been accused repeatedly and correctly of pushing a liberal agenda on their students and now there's further proof." The chyron established more Fox Fact: "College liberal bias exposed, study finds conservative books missing." He reported that the Young American Foundation has done a study which proves this. He didn't mention that the YAF is, as they say on their mission statement, is a "principal outreach of the conservative movement." Just to give you an idea of where they're coming from they have hosted a guest speaker parade of horribles which included convicted felon James O'Keefe and conservative "comedian" Steven Crowder. Carlson whined that freshman required reading, at the top 50 schools, OMG, doesn't include a single conservative book.

Tucker scrunched up his face as he said, to Pratte, "not a single book." Pratte responded that the lists included no books by conservative authors or with conservative themes. She claimed that the study has "exposed how colleges are seeking to indoctrinate students even before they get there." Pratte whined about how "it's not enough that courses tend to trend more liberal now on campus and your graduation speakers are liberal commencement speakers now but now there freshman required reading programs are delving into concepts that, you know, truly present liberal themes." She whined that, on the reading lists, there are no books "that promote free market principals or capitalism which are things that maybe students should be learning or even American history." Tucker "reminded" viewers that even though you're not paying tuition for these schools, they use your money for federal subsidies.

The racist dog whistle started blowing when the conversation turned to the actual books. Carlson asked Pratte about "Americanah," a book about Nigerian immigrants to the US. Pratte became animated as she described how it "delves into concepts of race in a way that I really had not seen before" because while blaming the protagonists (?)"it shifts more into the cultural perspective of race and in a way blames Americans for their perceptions of immigrants who come to this country." As she spoke, the chyron framed the agitprop message as a question: "Conservative books banned, study looks at freshman reading lists."

She provided some uplifting patriotism with a popular right wing meme: "As we know Tucker, what makes America great is our exceptionalism and what makes us unique is that anyone can come here and become an American." (ROFLMAO, just like those immigrant kids on the bus who were so welcomed by Murietta residents?)

After that bit of lunacy, Pratte continued the crazy talk about how these books "reinvent our history as an apologetic one for our exceptionalism" and declared that this kind of treasonous liberal rot shouldn't be taught to college students. Carlson engaged in some perfunctory Fox immigrant bashing with his summation of the book: "immigrants come here and complain about America."

After another bad book was discussed, Carlson mentioned that the list includes a book by Toni Morrison, described on the YAF website as having "leftist themes ...associated with race." He laughed uproariously as he said "Anybody who takes Toni Morrison seriously is obviously not qualified to teach kids."

So assigning books about diversity, race, and climate change is bad. Can't have students analyzing issues from perspectives that might be a bit out of their comfort zone, can we? But here's the thing - Toni Morrison is an acclaimed African-American writer and academic whose works have won numerous awards including a Nobel and a Pulitzer. Tucker Carlson is a hate-mongering, race baiting, right wing ideologue who runs a right wing website and spews his toxic crap on Fox News. Nuff said.

Addendum - the YAF site does not have any detailed on the methodology of their "study." There is no listing of the colleges and the reading lists, in their entirety. There is no explanation of how the researchers determined that all the books are "liberal."

(3/12/18 update: Video is no longer available)

Do you like this post?

Showing 2 reactions

I actually agree with Tucky but don’t think he’ll agree with my reasons. I, too, feel that a lot (never say “all”) of the reading materials recommended by good colleges and universities cannot but be written by liberals. In fact:

Liberal writers are more likely to want to stimulate thought and debate; their aim is to open horizons and encourage their readers to THINK!

Conservative writers are often (never say “always”) more inclined to reinforce mindless acceptance of a narrow set of pre-conceived ideas; their aim is to discourage readers from thinking, i.e. the very opposite of the purpose of education.